Texas hail claims: your deductible, and what your policy actually pays for a roof

Percentage wind and hail deductibles, replacement cost versus actual cash value, cosmetic damage exclusions on metal, and how a Texas roof claim really runs.

Two documents decide what a hailstorm costs you, and almost nobody reads either one until the roof is already damaged. The first is your declarations page: find the wind and hail deductible, and check whether it is written as a percentage rather than a flat amount. The second is the loss settlement language in the policy itself: find out how roof surfacing is paid, whether on a replacement cost basis, an actual cash value basis, or a schedule that shrinks as the roof ages. Those two answers govern your out of pocket cost more than anything a roofer or an adjuster does afterwards. Read them on a quiet afternoon. The week after a storm is the worst possible time to learn what you bought.

Here is how the rest of it works.

Your wind and hail deductible is probably a percentage

Most Texas homeowners policies carry two deductibles, not one. There is an all other perils deductible for the ordinary claim, usually a flat amount, and a separate wind and hail deductible that applies to storm damage. In this part of the state the second one is commonly written as a percentage.

The detail that catches people is what the percentage applies to. It is a percentage of Coverage A, the dwelling limit, which is the amount the house itself is insured for. It is not a percentage of the damage, and it is not a percentage of what you paid for the house. So the arithmetic is simple and worth doing today: take the percentage from the declarations page, apply it to the dwelling limit on the same page, and the result is what you pay before the policy pays anything at all. On a well insured Hill Country home that figure is far larger than the flat deductible most people carry in their heads, and it surprises homeowners every storm season.

Three consequences are worth knowing before you need them.

It comes off the whole loss once, not once per item. Roof, gutters, screens, fence, air conditioner fins and interior damage are one claim with one deductible. That is a reason to have everything on the property documented rather than only the roof.

It rises on its own. If your dwelling limit goes up at renewal, and with construction costs it usually does, a percentage deductible goes up with it automatically. Nobody sends a separate letter about that. Check the number every year.

It is per occurrence. Two storms in one season are two losses and two deductibles.

Some policies carry a flat wind and hail deductible instead, and some add a separate named storm deductible on top. Policies differ, and there is no way to know yours except to read it or have your agent walk you through the declarations page line by line.

Replacement cost, actual cash value, and the endorsements that change the economics

How your policy settles a roof loss matters as much as the deductible does.

Replacement cost value means the policy pays what it costs to put back a roof of like kind and quality today, subject to the limit and the deductible. Actual cash value means it pays the depreciated value, which is replacement cost less an allowance for the age and used up life of the roof. A roof two decades into its service life has spent most of that life, and an actual cash value settlement reflects it.

On a replacement cost policy the money usually arrives in two parts, and this confuses more homeowners than anything else in the process. The first payment is the actual cash value of the loss, less your deductible. The depreciation the carrier held back is called recoverable depreciation, and it is released after the work is finished and you submit proof, normally the final invoice plus photographs or a completion certificate. Look for the time limit on completing the work, because there generally is one, and depreciation left unclaimed past it can be lost.

Recoverable depreciation is recoverable against money you actually spend. If the finished job costs less than the estimate, you recover less. That is the quiet reason the “we will do it for whatever the insurance pays” pitch does not work the way it sounds.

Then there are the endorsements, common on older roofs and in hail prone counties, that change the picture completely.

An actual cash value roof endorsement settles wind and hail damage to roof surfacing on a depreciated basis even though the rest of the policy is written at replacement cost. There is no held back depreciation to release later. The gap between the depreciated payment and the real cost of the roof is yours.

A roof payment schedule, sometimes called a roof surfaces payment schedule, goes further. It pays a stated percentage of replacement cost based on the roof’s age and material, and that percentage steps down as the roof gets older. The schedule is printed as a table in the endorsement itself. Find the row your roof is on and read it.

Both of these usually apply to roof surfacing only, not to flashings, gutters, fascia or anything inside the house. Both are frequently added at renewal on an older roof, in a notice most people file unread. If you have not looked at your policy in a few years, this is the specific thing to go looking for.

One more coverage question belongs in the same reading session: ordinance or law. Current code can require work the existing roof never had, and whether the policy pays to bring the assembly up to code is separate coverage with its own limit.

Cosmetic damage exclusions, and why they bite hardest on the best roofs

This matters enormously to owners of standing seam metal, stone coated steel and other premium systems, and it is the most misunderstood line in a Texas property policy.

A cosmetic damage exclusion removes coverage for denting, marring and pitting of roof surfacing that does not affect the roof’s ability to keep water out. Hail does exactly that to metal. A storm can leave a standing seam roof dimpled across a whole slope without compromising a single seam, flashing or coating, and under the exclusion a roof that still performs is not a covered loss, however it looks from the house above yours on the hill.

The consequence is blunt. With a cosmetic exclusion in place you are self insuring the appearance of your roof. That can be a perfectly reasonable trade for the premium, and plenty of owners would make it deliberately. Making it by accident, and finding out after a storm, is the bad version.

Slate and tile sit differently. Those materials do not dent, they fracture, and a cracked tile is a genuine opening rather than a blemish, so a cosmetic exclusion does less work against them. The harder problem on tile and slate is finding the fractures, many of which run under the overlap of the tile above and cannot be seen from the ground.

If metal is on your shortlist, put two questions to your agent in writing before you sign anything: does this policy exclude cosmetic damage to roof surfacing, and can that exclusion be removed. Add a third at renewal, because a premium credit for a documented impact rated roof is widely available in Texas and the manufacturer paperwork from the installation is what earns it. The wider comparison of how metal and shingles behave under hail turns on this as much as on price.

How a hail claim usually runs

Carriers run their own processes, so treat the sequence below as the common shape rather than a description of yours. Ask your carrier for its version at the start.

You report the loss. You give a date of loss and a description, and you get a claim number. Report it yourself. Your policy states how promptly notice has to be given, and that duty is yours, not your roofer’s.

You protect the property. Nearly every policy obliges you to prevent further damage with tarps, a board up, whatever is reasonable and safe. Keep the receipts. Reasonable emergency measures are usually payable, and a homeowner who let water run into the house for three weeks can find the resulting interior damage argued over.

An adjuster inspects. It may be a staff adjuster employed by the carrier or an independent adjuster contracted for the surge after a big storm. Either way, they work for the insurer. A public adjuster is the separate licensed role that works for you, paid a share of the settlement that Texas caps, and Texas law keeps that role apart from the contractor doing the repair.

A scope and estimate are written. The adjuster produces a line item estimate. Ask for the complete document, every page, not the summary. It lists quantities, materials and unit prices, and it is what your roofer’s own scope has to be read against.

The first payment issues. On a replacement cost policy that is actual cash value less the deductible. If you have a mortgage, expect the servicer’s name on the check alongside yours, and expect them to hold the funds and release them in draws as the work progresses. That is normal, it affects your schedule, and it is worth learning your servicer’s process early.

Supplements follow. The first estimate was written from what could be seen from a ladder. Once the roof is opened, rotten decking, missing or code required underlayment, drip edge, ventilation and flashing details appear that nobody could have scoped in advance. A supplement is the documented request to add them, and it is a normal part of a roof claim rather than a sign of trouble. On slate, tile, copper and standing seam it is close to inevitable, because the unit costs in a carrier’s estimating database are built around common materials, and specialty work usually needs supplier quotes and manufacturer specifications attached before the scope can be written correctly.

Depreciation is released at the end. The work completes, the final invoice and completion documentation go in, and the held back depreciation is released, subject to the settlement terms above.

Texas law also puts deadlines on the insurer’s side of this. The prompt payment provisions of the Insurance Code require a carrier to acknowledge a claim, investigate it, accept or reject it in writing, and pay within set periods. If your claim has gone quiet, the Texas Department of Insurance publishes those deadlines and takes complaints.

What a roofer should do at the adjuster meeting, and what they must not

There is a real and useful role for your roofer at the adjuster’s inspection, and there is a line around it.

Worth having: safe ladder access, showing the adjuster the test squares already chalked and the counts taken on each slope, walking through the roof assembly and explaining what a repair or a replacement would actually involve on this system, pointing out damage and where it is, handing over dated photographs, and providing a written scope of their own. On a Honest Roofer job that photo and video record is not an afterthought handed over at the end; it is compiled and submitted to the carrier as the claim moves, the same practice a past customer described after a storm-damage repair. Afterwards, reading their scope against the carrier’s estimate line by line and telling you plainly which items they think are missing and why.

Not their role: negotiating the claim with your carrier, interpreting your policy for you, advising you what the claim is worth or what to accept, or handling the claim on your behalf. That is adjusting. Texas licenses people to do it, and the same law stops a public adjuster from also being the contractor on the job. A roofer who offers to handle the insurance company for you is offering something Texas licenses separately, and the offer should make you slower rather than faster.

The practical version: your roofer supplies facts about the roof, your policy and your carrier decide the claim, and the decisions in between are yours. What a genuine post storm inspection should have found before any of this begins, and how to tell one from a sales walkthrough, is set out in what an inspection should actually cover.

“We will cover your deductible” is a red flag, and in Texas it is illegal

After every major hailstorm someone knocks on doors offering to waive, absorb, discount or eat the deductible, or to hand it back as a rebate, a gift card or free upgrades. Texas Insurance Code Chapter 707 makes that unlawful. A contractor may not pay, waive, absorb, rebate or offset your insurance deductible, and may not advertise that they will. Your insurer is entitled to ask for reasonable proof that you actually paid it before releasing payment.

The law exists because of what the offer really is. The deductible does not disappear. It gets buried, usually by inflating the estimate that goes to the carrier so the claim covers the gap. Your name is on that claim. You signed it.

There is a second reason to walk away that has nothing to do with the statute. A contractor who can absorb your deductible has that much slack in the price, which tells you something about the price. And a contractor casually breaking one law in your driveway is not who you want detailing a standing seam roof out of sight on the back slope.

The softer versions count too: referral credits applied against the deductible, or an invoice that quietly shows a different number than the one the carrier saw. If a contract or an invoice does not show your deductible as an amount you are genuinely paying, do not sign it.

What to keep, and what deadlines are running

Documentation carries claims, and most of it costs nothing but a few minutes.

Keep the date of loss and the claim number, the adjuster’s name and direct contact, photographs of everything before any cleanup including the ground level collateral damage, receipts for tarps and emergency work, your roofer’s full written scope and photograph set as files you own rather than a slideshow on somebody’s phone, the carrier’s complete line item estimate, and a written log of every call with the date, who you spoke to and what was said. Follow important calls with a short email so there is a record of what was agreed.

The deadlines live in the policy rather than in general advice, and they are shorter than people assume. There is a period for giving notice of a loss, and a separate contractual limitation period for bringing suit. Find both. If you are anywhere near either one, that is a conversation for a lawyer and not for a roofer.

When a claim is not worth filing

Sometimes the right move is not to file, and a roofer worth calling will say so.

Get a real assessment first, then compare it against your deductible before you pick up the phone. If the honest scope of the damage lands below your wind and hail deductible, or only a little above it, a claim pays little or nothing and still becomes part of the property’s record. Claim history follows the property, and how much weight your carrier gives it at renewal is a question worth putting to your agent before you file rather than after. Paying for the repair yourself can be the cheaper outcome in total.

The same logic applies when the damage is genuinely cosmetic and your policy carries the exclusion, and when an older roof settles on a depreciated basis or a payment schedule, where what is left after the deductible may not justify the disruption.

Plenty of honest inspections also find no storm damage at all. Granule loss on an aging roof, blistering and marks from foot traffic are not hail, and filing on them is unlikely to go anywhere while still going on the record.

The claim that is worth making looks different: functional damage documented slope by slope, a clear date of loss corroborated by the dented soft metals and the collateral damage around the property, and a scope comfortably above the deductible on a policy that settles at replacement cost. None of that guarantees an outcome. It means the claim is worth the effort, which is a different thing.

Read the three answers now

Find the wind and hail deductible on your declarations page and work out what the percentage actually comes to. Find out how roof surfacing is settled. If you own a metal roof, or you are about to buy one, find out whether cosmetic damage is excluded. Nothing that happens after a storm changes those three answers, and everything that happens after a storm is shaped by them.

The Honest Roofer works on Hill Country roofs in West Austin, West Lake Hills, Lakeway, Bee Cave, Spicewood and Horseshoe Bay. We look at the house, document what is on the roof, and explain it in plain language, then leave the claim itself where it belongs, with you and your carrier. The process starts with reviewing the property, which is the part that has to be right whether a claim follows or not.